The contrast between the textbook and Macehual histories is also evident
in the recounting of the period after the Dzul successful invasion of
the Macehual territory in 1901. In the textbook, this invasion marks
the beginning of steady progress that culminates with Macehual integration
into the civilizing influence of the nation-state. Women, along
with men, subvert this description by presenting a notion of progress up to
the time of Macehual self-rule. Afterwards, the sequence of the stories
reveals the process of social decline by which they came to live again under
Dzul domination: The Dzuloob entered the territory and they immediately
started to survey the area looking for the Macehual enemy. Decline is
a main theme in the histories of this period of calamitous years of flight in
which the Macehualoob scattered and searched for sanctuary in the forests.
This theme of deterioration is also prevalent in the smallpox epidemic that
decimated them. None of these events are presented in the textbook.

Women elaborate on the theme of decline by presenting the disease and hunger
they experienced in the forest, but in their accounts they portray this decline
as a process of survival. They speak of Macehual hunger in the Chilam
Balam style, by simultaneously listing the ways of countering it or eradicating
it. Thus, they transform the threat of dying into a description of survival.
For instance, when women recount the efforts to keep babies alive during these
years of flight, they would usually describe in detail the specific strategies
they used.

The zapotes
[fruit of the zapodilla tree]
ripen in the trees
and fall.

Bugs get in
and the zapote is left dry
and old.

They would grab that fallen
zapote, take out the
powder, and put it in the
water and drink it.

(Doña Francisca: 6-23-91)

At every turn of the narratives, women teach us that the Macehualoob
find a way to overcome the barriers that threaten to destroy them. They fight
hunger by eating roots and honey by and drinking water from the cane. They save
babies by feeding them water with honey and the powder of the ripe zapodilla
fruit. In so doing, they speak in detail of survival procedures, such as combating
the cold by dressing with xaan, guano leaves, and treating smallpox by
laying the sick over banana leaves. Similarly, the nohoch macoob mention
the remedies for treating smallpox, such as drinking ground squash seeds dissolved
in water, or bathing in the juice of young corn, xmehen-nal.

The narrative selections of the nohoch macoob are in great part motivated
by their concern with the end of the world. According to the Chilam Balam, three
times it has happened this way and three times it has been necessary to make
bread with the cup-root because of the famine (Craine and Reindrop 1979,
85). Likewise, their prophecies tell the nohoch macoob that the end of
Dzul rule will be characterized by disease and flight. Through the detailed
listing of numerous roots, fruits, and honeys, as well as of remedies to combat
smallpox, the nohoch macoob tell of the importance of learning: the strategies
that will enable them to have access to food, fight the cold, or cure the sick
when the Macehualoob are faced again with such a predicament. Thus, the
nohoch macoob elaborate on the theme of decline, disease and hunger during
those years of flight; but in their accounts, they portray this decline as a
process of survival.

The action of the narratives also centers on the Macehual efforts to
resist by becoming imperceptible. The Macehualoob hid in caves and trees,
and tiptoed from stone to stone. As don Ramiro told me:

En ese tiempo,
los Macehualoob caminaban mucho.

Pero no dejan huellas.

No se van a ver huellas,

Esas huellas no existen.

La gente sabe por donde ir.

Cuando van los soldados Mayas,
brinquitos solo sobre piedras.

(5-12-91)

During that time,
the Macehauloob walked a lot.

But they do not leave prints.

The prints are not going to be
seen

Those prints do not exist.

People know where to walk.

When the Mayan soldiers go,
they jump onto the stones.

(5-12-91)

Womens stories emphasize that they erased all sound by cutting the throats
of roosters and by putting muzzles over dogs snouts. They recount that
they silenced children by putting cotton and cloth in their mouths and by hiding
them in caves and wells. Moreover, consistent with the view that they might
need this knowledge again in the future war, they passed on these procedures.
For instance, they explained that parents would lower their children inside
a well using a wood that is called choy chun, and proceeded
to explain the process used to make the bucket. They take away the hair,
they roast it in the fire, peel it, cut it to make a bucket, a basket. The child
is put inside and is left there. They close the well and one cannot hear them
when they cry.

In womens narratives, resistance acts as a warning against Macehual
betrayal and separation. Womens histories often center on the experiences
of mothers with little children who walked by themselves because no one wanted
to join them for fear of being discovered by the childrens cries. These
mothers are presented heroically. They speak of women having children by themselves,
silencing them with their breasts, and succeeding in surviving. In contrast,
those women who refused to join them were invariably discovered and raped or
killed by the soldiers as punishment for their betrayal. The following passage
from doña Anita is a case in point.

My grandmother walked for about six months in the forest. When
she fled to the forest, she had a baby boy and was pregnant with another
one. There were five girls that were going with her. But these girls were
only with her for a little while because they were afraid to be discovered
by the babys cries. Lets part from this grandmother,
they said among themselves, because with her child, the huachoob
[Mexican soldiers] are going to discover us soon. They left her
and started to walk by themselves. She [the grandmother] felt very sad when
the girls left her with her son. You know the big trees that have a hole.
That is where she hid. She hid inside caves and in the low part of the forest
[kom]. In all these places, she was hiding with her son. When the
boy was hungry, she would fetch the powder of the zapote in a can
of milk. She would heat the water, put in the powder, and give it to the
boy to drink. Then, after a while, she heard the huachoob pass. When
the huachoob would hear the cries of the boy, they would think it
was a bird. Oh that is a bird, she would hear them say. In their
conversations, she would also hear them name people such as Juan, Pedro,
and Juana. The girls who separated from her were seized by the huachoob.
She heard them crying near where she was because the huachoob passed
over [raped] them. They made them [the girls] evil [meta ola tioob]
(3-28-91).

In this story, doña Anita explores the theme of resistance in the most adverse
situation: a pregnant woman living with a child in the forest. This vulnerability
condemned her to walking alone, as younger women refused to walk with her for
fear that her child would attract the Mexican soldiers attention. The
story exemplifies resistance in the strategies of survival that are conveyed,
including where one hides in the forest (inside caves and in the low part
of the forest), what one feeds a baby (the powder of the zapote),
and how to cook. It also teaches that womens power is able to neutralize
the danger of the Dzuloob.11
Although the huach enemy passes by so near that she even hears them say
names such as Juan, Pedro, and Juana, doña Anitas grandmother
expresses her power magically, making the soldiers, hear bird songs when
her child cries. The story then warns against Macehual betrayal,
directing attention to the fate of the young women who are raped (passed
over) and possibly killed, (made evil) by the soldiers.

The narratives emphasize that concealment is forced upon them by the Dzuloob,
while simultaneously stressing that they are resisting. In mens narratives,
concealment becomes an important component of defense allowing them to make
traps and weapons, while in womens narratives it is expressed only through
hiding in trees, in the low forest, and in the importance of mutual help.

In Macehual history, the overwhelming deterioration of their lives is
represented by the tremendous sufferings they experienced as a result of the
Dzul. Hunger, disease, and violence are all variations on that broad
and continuous stream of suffering. Yet, women teach that the Macehualoob
refused to capitulate to the Dzuloob on any front. Neither hunger, disease
nor violence made them yield. They devised strategies of silence and invisibility,
hiding in caves, wells, and the low forest, slitting roosters throats,
muzzling their dogs, and silencing their children. Thus, women present their
audience with an inspirational vision of courage in the face of adversity by
enumerating the virtues of endurance and cunning which are fundamental to Macehual
survival.